Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Emoji 6.0 is starting development, and initial drafts of the specification and data files are available. In the specification and data, a new property is added that helps to “future-proof” segmentation for emoji. The specification also contains more proposed guidelines: for gender-neutral emoji, the application of skin-tone modifiers, and others.

There are two types of emoji: characters and sequences. While these appear and behave similarly for users, they are released on different time schedules.

Emoji characters at Draft Candidate status are targeted at Unicode 11.0 (due in June 2018). These characters are “short-listed”. The Emoji Candidates chart has been updated with these characters, and feedback is solicited on names, keywords, and ordering. They will be reviewed at the October UTC meeting and are on track for
Final Candidate status.

Emoji sequences may be released as a part of Emoji 6.0. The exact content and release schedule of Emoji 6.0 has yet to be determined: it could appear earlier than Unicode 11.0. The Proposals for new sequences for Emoji 6.0 were presented in L2/17-287 and will be reviewed in the October UTC meeting.
Other proposals may be considered at that meeting.

Over 100,000 characters are available for adoption, to
help the Unicode Consortium’s work on digitally disadvantaged languages.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

The Unicode Consortium has posted a new issue for public review and comment.

Public Review Issue #354: A submission for the "Registration of additional sequences in the Moji_Joho collection" has been received by the IVD registrar.

This submission is currently under review according to the procedures of UTS #37, Unicode Ideographic Variation Database, with an expected close date of 2017-11-17. Please see the submission page for details and instructions on how to review this issue and provide comments:

Monday, July 31, 2017

The Unicode Consortium is pleased to announce that Oakland Athletics Baseball is now a gold sponsor for:

Oakland Athletics Baseball's sponsorship directly funds the work of the Unicode Consortium in enabling modern software and computing systems to support the widest range of human languages. There are approximately 7,000 living human languages. Fewer than 100 of these languages are well-supported on computers, mobile phones, and other devices. AAC donations are used to improve support for digitally disadvantaged languages, and to help preserve the world’s linguistic heritage.

The team adopted the three characters as visual representation for Oakland Athletics Baseball. The organization's nine World Series titles and 15 American League Pennants make the Athletics one of the most storied clubs in Major League Baseball. The Athletics take great pride in the achievements of the past, and view them as a challenge to push further. The Oakland Athletics are committed to creating winning experiences that encompass the many aspects of the game and the Oakland community. — Oakland Athletics Baseball

The Unicode Consortium thanks Oakland Athletics Baseball for their support!

Monday, July 24, 2017

The Unicode Consortium is pleased to announce that White Unicorn Agency is now a gold sponsor for:

White Unicorn Agency's sponsorship directly funds the work of the Unicode Consortium in enabling modern software and computing systems to support the widest range of human languages. There are approximately 7,000 living human languages. Fewer than 100 of these languages are well-supported on computers, mobile phones, and other devices. AAC donations are used to improve support for digitally disadvantaged languages, and to help preserve the world’s linguistic heritage.

White Unicorn Agency is a dynamic, full-service creative agency based in the Design District of Dallas, Texas. We’re a diverse team of dreamers who build remarkable brands with design, technology, and a touch of magic. We value process and function as much as beauty and creativity, and summon them all to help bring your ideas to life. For us, the creative process seamlessly unites strategy and imagination – producing insightful, innovative business solutions delivered in new and interesting ways. We work across a variety of mediums to create captivating experiences that convey our client’s message effectively. We're proud to be the official sponsor of the Unicorn Emoji and support the Unicode Consortium. — White Unicorn Agency

Thursday, July 20, 2017

The Unicode Consortium is pleased to announce that JMP is now a gold sponsor for:

JMP's sponsorship directly funds the work of the Unicode Consortium in enabling modern software and computing systems to support the widest range of human languages. There are approximately 7,000 living human languages. Fewer than 100 of these languages are well-supported on computers, mobile phones, and other devices. AAC donations are used to improve support for digitally disadvantaged languages, and to help preserve the world’s linguistic heritage.

Scientific advances, engineering breakthroughs and statistical discoveries:
Clarity comes to those who explore data visually and interactively with statistical software from JMP. That’s why we adopted the lightbulb — to represent the aha moments scientists, engineers and other data explorers experience. From its beginning, JMP has connected statistics with data visualization for data analysis, later adding design of experiments, predictive modeling, and quality, reliability, and consumer research analysis. Unicode allows us to focus on statistical discovery rather than on character set differences among the seven languages our software supports or on multiple operating systems. That’s another reason we decided to support Unicode’s work, as explained in this post. — JMP